Your Edge: Attacking the Shorty with Ned Crotty

How Team USA hopeful, 2010 Tewaaraton winner and current New
York Lizards exploits short-stick d-middies

WHAT I DO

Teach Lacrosse

I am the executive director of lacrosse at the House of Sports
in Ardsley, N.Y. in Westchester County. We have nine club teams,
and a lot of academy classes. It's a pretty awesome facility. We
have basketball on the first floor, second floor is all strength
and performance, and third floor is a 90x40 turf field. From 4
o'clock until about 9 is our wheelhouse with classes, broken up by
age group and into parts: stick work, fundamentals, dodging,
shooting, attack, defense, goalies. You come once a week for eight
weeks for an hour. So, for example, every Tuesday at 6 o'clock,
you'll come for your class.

Preach Fundamental Shooting

When you're throwing the ball, you first want to have your
shoulder pointed toward your target. Oftentimes you'll see players
with their hands out in front of them, doing the catapult, like a
chicken wing with their elbow in front of them. Two reasons why
that doesn't work is it's not a consistent motion, and you are
putting your arm and hand out for a defenseman to hit.

Instead, get your bottom hand by your back shoulder. Make sure
you have your elbow up. Everything shoulder-height. If your elbow
is down the ball is going to go down. As you pull your front elbow
to your target, you can snap. It's a much smoother and consistent
motion. That helps make you a more consistent player.

Play Fast

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At Duke, we broke the game down into eight or nine different
ways to score. Off the faceoff, transition, ride, clear, unsettled,
man-up, man-down, six-on-six. We realized if we could get two goals
in each of those categories, we've got 16 goals a game. Focusing on
6-on-6 is only one aspect of the game. That's how we wanted to
play. The slowdown is terrible, especially with the exposure
lacrosse is getting now nationally.

MY NEW MLL HOME

I live in New York City so commute-wise, it will be much easier
with the New York Lizards. I'll only be going to an airport seven
times as opposed to 14. It's a very-well run organization, which is
awesome. They did really well in the draft, too, picking up some
defensive pieces. There's also a lot of guys in the Team USA fold.
We're working out some chemistry through that. It's my first real
trade ever. It was definitely tough to leave Rochester. Love those
guys up there and the coaches, but it just seemed like it was the
right thing to do.

MY STORY

I was born in Albany, then lived two years in Minnesota and now
about 20 years in New Jersey. I played at Delbarton (N.J.) High,
about 10 minutes from where I grew up. My older brother played in
Albany, they didn't have lacrosse in Minnesota then we moved to New
Jersey when I was in second grade. Grew up watching it and didn't
know what it was, but started playing in fifth- or sixth-grade. I
grew up a hockey guy, even through high school. I only played
lacrosse four months out of the year and probably played hockey the
rest. I never played fall ball or indoor lacrosse. But my brother
had a bunch of really bad injuries in hockey that prevented him
from going further. He had a sixth major concussion and lost
peripheral vision for three months. When it came to me to play
hockey or lacrosse, here I am.

MY RECRUITING STORY

At Delbarton, my sophomore, junior and senior seasons we were
top 10 in the country. My junior year we had some top recruits
— Dan Cocoziello and Alex Hewitt — in the class ahead
of me. When we had the state semifinals, it was pretty full with
coaches. I benefited from that.